Come Morning Light
by Fuhrmanizer
Summary: "We lost Barton. We don't have Romanoff. That's two of the Avengers Initiative, down. If we need that response team-" "I think you will, however, be interested to know what S.H.I.E.L.D. has been keeping its eyes on." Desperate times call for desperate measures, so of course, the logical solution to being down two agents is to have their child take their place. Movie rewrite, AU.


**A/N: God, I know, I just keep spitting out stories, but I knew if I didn't start this one now it'd never get started. So, after reminiscing on an old Tumblr meme I saw a few months ago and the fact that I've watched _The Avengers_ at least three times this week in school alone, I got this idea and knew that if I didn't write it, I'd forever beat myself up over it. If you have any questions about this story, please, don't hesitate to PM me here or on my tumblr, troiaans. I'd be glad to answer. With that...enjoy.**

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Chapter One: The Call

_**S.H.I.E.L.D. Research Facility**_

_The sounds of instructions involving the ongoing evacuation sounded throughout the research facility, as one Phil Coulson stood outside, watching the skies for his boss. People moved all around him, pushing past to get the equipment out of the facility as well as themselves. Spotting a familiar light up in the sky, Agent Coulson pushed up his sunglasses to withstand looking directly into the bright light. As the helicopter slowly settled on the ground, Nick Fury and Agent Hill emerged, setting foot on the ground. Director Fury stopped momentarily to regard Agent Coulson's presence. "How bad is it?"_

"_That's the problem, sir," Coulson admitted. "We don't know."_

_Moving throughout the depths of the facility, Agents Maria Hill and Coulson eagerly followed Director Fury. More people were moving about due to their given orders at a rather rapid pace. Coulson began speaking. "Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago," he explained, trying to keep up with the pace of the Director._

"_NASA didn't authorize Selvig to test the Tesseract," Director Fury pointed out._

"_He wasn't testing it," Coulson said. "He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous advancement."_

_Agent Hill's face was decorated with a look of astonishment on it after she had processed Coulson's statement. "It just turned itself on?" she asked, still in a state of disbelief._

_Her comment went ignored, as Director Fury continued on. "What are the reading levels now?"_

"_Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac." _

"_How long to get everyone out?" Fury questioned. _

"_Campus should be clear in the next half hour," Coulson said._

"_Do better."_

_Agent Hill and Director Fury proceeded on into the furthermore depths of the facility, Hill following after the Director. "Sir, evacuation may be futile," she protested._

"_We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Director Fury asked, clearly mimicking the woman's statement._

"_If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance," Hill argued._

"_I need you to make sure that phase 2 prototypes are shipped out," Fury carried on._

"_Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Agent Hill asked, her voice's strain to it clearly giving away the amount of concern and stress she was undergoing at the moment. Director Fury stopped in his tracks, turning around to face the woman._

"_Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin," Fury said, his voice harsh. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase 2 on a truck and gone."_

_Hill walked past him, not bothering to ask any more questions about what they could potentially be facing. "Yes, sir."_

_Fury continued walking, until entering the lab facility where the Tesseract was being held. Scientists were running around, evidently stressed out as they tried desperately to get a hold of the reins concerning the Tesseract. "Talk to me, Doctor." _

_Doctor Selvig, from behind his position at a computer, raised his head to acknowledge Director Fury's presence. "Director."_

"_Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked, walking over to Selig's side._

"_Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig said, beginning to walk off to check on other statistics._

"_Is that supposed to be funny?"_

"_No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's…misbehaving."_

"_How soon 'til you pull the plug?" Fury inquired, following Selvig around the lab._

"_She's an energy source," Selvig explained. "If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level…" he trailed off, leaving it up to the Director to figure out the rest._

"_We've prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space," Fury prodded._

"_We don't have the harness. Our calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation." _

_Nick Fury locked eyes with the man. "That can be harmful." Looking around, he then turned his attention back to Selvig. "Where's Barton?" he asked._

_Selvig raised an eyebrow. "The Hawk?" Smirking, the doctor pointed up behind him to the upper levels of the laboratory. "Up in his nest, as usual."_

_From a railing where he remained stationary, watching the scene unfold below him, Clint Barton's earpiece began to make noise. "Agent Barton, report to me," Fury's call transferred in, and almost instantaneously, Barton jumped up and made his way down to where the Director was._

_The two began walking through the lab, Fury looking over at the agent. "I gave you this detail so you could keep an eye on things," he started._

"_Well, I see better from a distance," Barton quickly countered. _

"_Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?"_

_One of the NASA scientists working over by a computer, watching the Tesseract's readings, yelled in the direction of Selvig. "Doctor, it's spiking again!"_

_Stopping near the Tesseract, Barton looked down at where the cube was being currently held. "No one's come or gone. It's oven is clean. No contacts, no I.M.'s. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."_

"_At this end?" Fury repeated._

"_Yeah," Barton said. "The cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? The doors open from both sides." _

_Just as the words left Barton's mouth, the Tesseract began to activate, unleashing a brilliant stream of blue towards the opposite end of the laboratory. It continued to shoot out, and in turn, opening the portal through space. The blinding light carried on shining as something exited the portal, before abruptly closing up. There, standing on a small platform, a silhouette stood; smoke moving away from the person. The man looked up, a sinister grin on his face as he observed his surroundings._

"_Sir," Fury called out. "Please put down the spear." The man looked down at his spear for a moment, as if questioning as though it was really there, before pointing it in Fury and Barton's direction and releasing an exploding blue light at them. Barton immediately grabbed Fury and pushed him out of the line of fire. All hell began to break loose as a few of the security guards tried firing at the man, but to no avail. Each one who aimed at him was stabbed with the spear or got another exploding wave of light sent his way. As the man made his way closer, Barton fired at him a few times before rolling out of the way as another explosion was sent in his direction._

_Poising the gun, Barton aimed and was ready to pull the trigger when the man forcefully yanked him up and onto his feet. He took Barton's hand, before uttering quietly, "You have heart." He then lifted the spear, placing the tip of it at the center of Barton's chest and watched as his mind was possessed. Barton put his gun back in his holster, staring blankly at the man._

_Director Fury quietly leant up, retrieving the Tesseract from where it was being held and slipped it into a briefcase while watching the unfamiliar man perform the same deed as he had to Barton to several other S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. Slowly standing up, Fury turns and tries to escape the lab._

"_Please don't." The voice of the man echoed out from behind him, and Director Fury stopped dead in his tracks. "I still need that."_

_Fury turned around, facing the other man. "This doesn't have to get any messier."_

"_Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else," the man insisted, before a sick smile spread across his face. "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."_

_Selvig, who was still on the ground from Loki's first explosion, stared up at him. "Loki? Brother of Thor?"_

_Fury tried to civilly reason with Loki. "We have no quarrel with your people," he said, in hopes that Loki would take that as his cue to return, all in a part of a grand misunderstanding._

"_An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki returned._

"_You planning to step on us?" Fury asked, his questions growing more and more short ended and harsh._

"_I come with glad tidings, of a world made free," Loki explained._

"_Free from what?"_

"_Freedom. Freedom is life's greatest lie. Once you accept that, in your heart," Loki paused, turning to face the now standing Dr. Selvig and positioned his spear over Selvig's heart. "You will know peace." Loki withdrew his spear as Selvig's mind was then his to control._

"_Yeah, you say peace," Fury began. I kind of think you mean the other peace."_

_Barton then strode over to Loki, pointing at the ceiling which was fluctuating blue from the Tesseract's activity. "Sir, Director Fury is stalling," he said. "This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of raw material, he means to bury us."_

"_Like the Pharaohs of Odin," Fury replied._

_Selvig, who was standing near a computer and checking the readings of the place, nodded. "He's right; the portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes until this thing goes critical."_

_Loki looked in Barton's direction, giving him a single command. "Drop him."_

_Barton didn't reply; he wordlessly fired at Fury and sent him to the ground. With Fury down, Barton grabbed the suitcase and lead Loki, Selvig, and a few other possessed S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel out of the lab._

_Once in the parking garage of the facility, Barton pointed at a few of the vehicles lined up. "Need these vehicles," he said. Agent Hill, who was standing nearby, followed after Barton with a confused look on her face._

"_Who's that?" she asked. _

_Barton merely replied, "He didn't tell me."_

_Hill watched the men load up in the vehicles with a growing suspicion inside of her. She turned, walking off in the direction of the lab as her walkie-talkie began making noise. "Hill, do you copy?" Fury's voice crackled from the other end. "Barton is…"_

_Hill's eyes widened as she quickly turned around to shoot at Barton. One step ahead, Barton already had the gun cocked in her direction, firing at the woman. Hill moved out of the line of bullets aimed her way, watching as Barton jumped into the truck and took off, Hill still firing at him. As he made his way out of the lab, Fury continued to communicate with Hill. "He's got the Tesseract. Track it down!"_

_Following the director's orders, Hill jumped into a truck and began to speed off, chasing after Loki and his minions. Managing to corner them, she began to fire in hopes that it would be enough to stop them. They finally found a way around her, pulling out and speeding off. As the laboratory caved in, Fury joined Coulson and a few other agents on a helicopter, which took off right as the place began to cave in. Hill also noticed this, as everything behind her began to give way. Speeding as fast as the car would go, she tried desperately to keep up with the hostile force but to no avail; she ended up trapped in between the rubble of the falling garage._

_Loki, Barton and Selvig made it out of the collapsing facility, pulling out right in the line of the helicopter. Fury stepped to the open side, firing at the vehicle. Loki saw his attempts and with the simple wave of his spear sent the helicopter hurtling towards the earth. Fury dropped out of the copter, landing on the ground and firing a few final shots at the escaping truck. The helicopter crashed a good ways over, dying as it sputtered on the ground._

_In the dead silence of the night, Fury reached for his walkie-talkie as Agent Coulson's voice came through. "Director? Director Fury, do you copy?"_

"_The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down," Fury stated into the communication device. "Hill?"_

_Pulling herself up higher out of the seat, she looked around. "A lot of men still under," she said, trying to catch her breath. "Don't know how many survivors."_

"_Sound the general call," Fury ordered. "I want every living soul not needing rescue looking for that briefcase."_

"_Roger that," Hill replied._

"_Coulson, get back to base," Fury continued on. "This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."_

_There was silence on all ends of the conversation; no one knew what this meant or what would come next. Phil Coulson voiced everyone's opinion as he pressed the talk button on the side of the walkie-talkie. "What do we do?"_

**_. . ._**

"Katniss, you know you shouldn't be messing with that," Gale hisses as I run my fingers up and down the bow. He gives it a split second before realizing I'm not parting with it, so he reaches out to take the bow from me. "Katniss—"

"Calm down Gale, it's just a bow!" I cut him off, coming off a lot more defensive than I probably should. He immediately backs down, his hands slowly rising to show he meant no harm. I take a few deep breaths, before regaining composure. "Sorry, I just…it's just a bow. It doesn't mean anything."

"Where'd you even find that?" he asks, as one of his eyebrows rises out of curiosity. "I mean, it's not mine or yours, so who's could it be?"

"Not sure," I mumble quietly, bringing the bow closer to my chest as I look around us. There's nothing for miles; just a large expanse of forest. It's one of the things I've always loved about living in the heart of the mountains. No matter where you escape to, you're always within the safety of the trees. They shelter, they provide, and they give a fortress to whoever seeks it.

Gale looks at me, uncertain of what that means. He rests a hand on my shoulder, looking around the woods as I was only moments before. "I'm heading out; Ma will be expecting me and I don't want to break curfew," he finally says. I give him a slight nod, my eyes focused elsewhere. Gale lets out a sigh, slinging his game bag over his shoulder as he turns to walk off. The sound of leaves crackling underneath his feet signals his exit, but they stop abruptly. "And Katniss?" I take my eyes off the bow, my head lifting slowly to see his gray eyes staring at me.

"Yeah, Gale?"

"You better hide that bow with ours," he says finally, before letting his head fall again and disappearing within the trees once more.

Gale and I grew close after my father's death. After his funeral, I escaped to the woods in a blind rage, tears clouding my vision as I collapsed on a fallen log. Gale appeared; it turns out he wasn't the only person who thought the woods a safe haven after all. He hunted a lot in the woods, mostly for game. With his mother out of work and caring for three other children and a father who died in the same mining explosion as mine, he was the breadwinner for their family. He sold his game to people around the extremely small, isolated-from-almost-all-civilization town we lived in, and it usually did pretty well. While my father showed me how to use a bow and arrow, Gale actually taught me; he always told me what a natural I was. Eventually, I began hunting myself and we sold the game we killed together, always divvying up our makings between the two of us.

Gale was my only best friend; whenever I went to school, people probably thought me a mute because the only person I ever gave the time of day was Gale. He was two years older than I, so I only saw him at certain points in the day. The mayor's daughter, Madge, was the only other exception, seeing as how her father was willing to pay up front for the wild strawberries that grew out here in the woods; she was the only other peer I could tolerate.

It was simple, why I was non-social. Not only was I one of those miner's daughters, _those_ miners, the ones that died in that mine explosion; but I fell victim to a few nasty rumors. Living in a smaller-than-small town, people talked and it spread fast, not to mention it stuck for a long time. I grew up as an only child, and due to the isolation of our town to modern society, there was no true way to know whether or not I was really my parent's child or not. There was always a part of me that knew that there was a great possibility that I was adopted or taken in or whatever crazy scenario that might have entailed. But, for the sake of my sanity, I chose to ignore it, hold my head up and go about my life like I knew that I was an Everdeen and that that was the end of it.

I run my fingers up and down the bow once more, sighing. Whoever left this bow sure did leave a damn good weapon behind. Toying around with the bow, I hold it up as though I'm about to shoot it. My fingers mess with the string, pulling it back before releasing it. It's a lot tighter than my usual bow, that's one thing I know for a fact.

Lowering the bow, I take a quick glance at the sky. The sun is beginning to set, and I know that it's about time for my curfew as well. I begin to make my way back over to a small hole in the ground, covered by a thin veneer of leaves. In it rests Gale's and my own bow. I add the new addition in the hole, laying it across the other two before pushing the leaves back over it. I then kiss the woods goodnight and make my way back home.

_**. . .**_

"Sir?" Agent Coulson made his way up to where the Director was stationed, his hands firmly grasped behind his back. Nick Fury turned to face the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, his face emotionless. Coulson took that as his cue to continue. "We've got a problem."

"We've got a lot of those at the moment, Agent," Fury said as he stepped down to Coulson's level. "What _kind_ of problem?"

Coulson swallowed hard. "I compiled the files for when we talk to Stark like you asked. But there was something that sort of throws the whole plan off kilter." The agent fell silent, before the Director's burning glare prompted him to continue. "Sir, Agent Romanoff was supposedly killed in action over five years ago; there hasn't been any sign of her since."

"You want me to believe that Natasha Romanoff, the famous Black Widow, was _supposedly killed in action_? I've heard bullshit before, Coulson, but none like this. Find her," Fury said, turning to walk back up to his station.

"Director, this is Natasha. If she was alive, if she knew about Barton being compromised, she would be here. We all knew about their bond; if she was the left hand, he was the right. Sir, if Agent Romanoff was alive, then S.H.I.E.L.D. would have found a way to communicate with her."

Fury stopped, slowly swiveling back around and walking back up to Coulson. "We lost Barton. We don't have Romanoff. That's two of the Avengers Initiative down. If this Loki means to bring about war, if we _need_ that response team—"

"I think you will, however, be interested to know about what S.H.I.E.L.D. has been keeping its eyes on," Coulson said as he retrieved a quite thick file from inside his jacket, handing it over to Fury.

Fury's lips spread out into a thin smile as he opened up the file, looking at the top page of contents. "Thank you, Agent."

Before making his exit, Coulson gave the director a half smile. "Sir?" Fury's gaze left the file and focused on the agent in front of him. "You should know something about this…situation before you jump into it headfirst. If and when we get Barton back; when he finds out that we went through with this, he's going to personally kill you."

_**. . .**_

The sun peeks through the tops of the trees, whispering it's soft good morning like it does almost every single day I come out. Sundays are my day with Gale, out here alone in the woods and having only each other to occupy if that. Sundays are my day of peace. I sit on the tree branch, staring at the forest floor long enough to lose my train of thought.

There's suddenly a rustling of the leaves, and I feel the smile spreading across my face. Gale's finally come. I jump down from my perch, dropping my bow down to my side as I walk in the direction of the rustling leaves. "Gale!" I call out. There's no reply, just the growing sound of the leaves on the ground crunching under someone's face. "Gale?" This time, it's more of a questioning call as I crane my head, looking around to see who it could be. If it was an animal approaching, my shouts would have scared it off by now.

Out of pure instinct, I take an arrow from the quiver and in one swift motion, draw back, ready to shoot. I stand motionless, waiting for the predator to emerge from the small thicket away. I count my breaths, a trick Gale taught me to keep me patient and silent while waiting for game.

Finally, a tall man, dressed in all black and wearing an eye patch walks straight through the undergrowth and into the clearing, only a few feet away from my arrow. He chuckles to himself, but I keep the bow and arrow where they are; poised to kill.

"Who the hell are you?" I finally ask, my own voice sounding unfamiliar.

"Nick Fury; you can call me Director," the man replies. "It's nice to finally meet you, Miss Everdeen."

The way he says my last name is almost like it's a joke, but I try to focus on the more important things; like the fact that this strange, Fury dude knows exactly who I am and exactly where to find me. "How did you—"

"Find you?" he finishes, another laugh escaping his lips. "It wasn't that complicated. You see, Miss Everdeen, it's impossible for you to be found when you were never lost." His words sink in, and they stir inside of me, registering as the fact that I've been watched, watched for much longer than I'd ever really imagined.

"That doesn't explain how you know me," I say, my fingers closest to the arrow twitching. "It doesn't explain anything. It just makes you seem like even more of a creep."

"Miss Everdeen, I'd love to sit around and have this lovely chat, but there's no time for it. I need for you to come with me, and I need for you to come with me now." I open my mouth to argue, but this Fury dude dismisses it with the wave of his hand. "Surely you'd like to know about your real parents," he says. I contemplate that thought for a moment. I could leave behind everything; everything I knew and loved in order to find out about parents I never knew, or I could stay here and face whatever comes my way.

I lower the bow, removing the arrow and putting it back into the quiver that's now slung over my shoulder. "Lead the way," I say, pointing in the direction that Nick Fury came. He says nothing, but leads me off wordlessly into god only knows what I'm getting myself into.

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**I hope you enjoyed it! So, basically, this is going to be a rewrite of the movie, but my take on it. Natasha is presumed dead and Clint's been taken by Loki, so I think at this point it's pretty obvious who will be filling Tasha's spot. ;) Like I said before, feel free to ask me any questions you may have. Be sure to leave a review; they're inspiring, refreshing, and it's nice to know people like your stuff. Don't forget that review, seriously.**


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